Compare and Contrast

A Comparison or Contrast essay is an essay in which you either compare something or contrast something.  A comparison essay is an essay in which you emphasize the similarities, and a contrast essay is an essay in which you emphasize the differences.  We use comparison and contrast thinking when deciding which university to attend, which car to buy, or whether to drive a car or take a bus or an airplane to a vacation site.

Two classic organizational patterns of a comparison or contrast essay will be discussed.  One is called block arrangement of ideas; the other is called point-by-point or alternating arrangement of ideas.

Vacationing in the mountains vs. the beach If you mention a particular point in the mountains paragraph, you must mention the same point in the beach paragraph, and in the same order.  Study the following outline, which shows this kind of organization.  The introductory paragraph is followed by the mountains paragraph, the beach paragraph, then the conclusion; the fully developed essay is a minimum four paragraphs.

Block Arrangement (four paragraphs) I. Introduction in which you state your purpose which is to discuss the differences between vacationing in the mountains or at the beach II. Mountain A.  Climate B. Types of Activities  C.  Location  III. Beach A.  Climate B.  Types of Activities  C.  Location  IV. Conclusion

A second way to organize this material is to discuss a particular point about vacationing in the mountains and then immediately to discuss the same point about vacationing at the beach.  This is called point-by-point or alternating arrangement.  An outline of this organization follows.

II. First difference between mountains and beaches is climate I. Introduction in which you state your purpose which is to discuss differences between vacationing in the mountains or at the beach II. First difference between mountains and beaches is climate A.  Mountains B.  Beach III. Second difference between mountains and beaches are types of activities IV. Third difference between mountains and beaches is the location A.  Mountains B.  Beach V. Conclusion

Compare and contrast thesis Your thesis should contain the categories that you will use in the essay as evidence.  Do not do this:      Bad example:  The recovery of Russia and China after the Mongols had many similarities and differences.  The above sentence is vague, wimpy, and is really just a restatement of an assumption in the prompt.  It is a fluttering of loose ends needing to be nailed down onto concrete categories.

Better  When Russia and China recovered from Mongol domination they had similar political goal but different cultural goals. This thesis is getting there.  It at least declares in general categories how the paths of China and Russia were different and how they were similar after the Mongols. It has broken down (analyzed) these things into categories that lend themselves to a well defined essay.  But it could be better

Best:    While both Russia and China built strong centralized governments after breaking free from the Mongols, Russia imitated the culture and technology of Europe while China became isolated and built upon its own foundations.  Think about this thesis for a moment.  It directly addresses the comparison (tells what they have in common and where they were different.)  It contains the categories (political and cultural) on which the writer will hang relevant historical facts, and the terms (foreign influence and isolationism) on which the comparisons will be made.  These categories will form the paragraphs of the essay.